“The guys battled back and got a run in the bottom of the inning to push forward; it just didn’t happen tonight.

“It was a cutter in, and it just looked like [Grossman] was sitting on it or that’s the location he was looking for, so he barreled it up. It happens.”

After Mujica entered with a 3-2 lead in the eighth, he gave up singles to Chris Carter and Dexter Fowler.

Tommy Layne came in and struck out the next two batters, and Burke Badenhop got the call to finish the inning. Then things went awry.

Matt Dominguez sent a sharp grounder to shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who flipped the ball to Dustin Pedroia at second for a force out to end the inning. But Fowler just beat the throw.

Gregorio Petit, who was running for Carter, rounded third and broke for home, and Pedroia fired a bullet to catcher Christian Vazquez.

Petit appeared to get caught in a rundown, but he faked out Vazquez and reached for the plate. Vazquez threw to Badenhop, who was covering the plate, but the pitcher couldn’t handle the toss. Petit acrobatically touched the plate for the tying run.

The Sox challenged the play, but both rulings were upheld.

Buchholz (5-7, 5.79 ERA), who hasn’t earned a win since July 18, was left with his third
no-decision in as many starts.

“It was a really good athletic play for the guy running the bases,” Buchholz said.

“Crazy things happen. You expect the guy to get out at second, and Pedey was heads-up and threw the ball home and I think Vazquez thought he was going to get in a rundown and the guy sort of ran behind him.”

The righthander has shown improvement in his last two starts after giving up 18 earned runs over 16 innings in his previous three outings.

“Clay was outstanding once again. He was crisp,” manager John Farrell said. “He had a very good curveball to put hitters away with, to lead guys off with strikes.

“A lot of strikes overall. He was very efficient. Unfortunately, it seemed like they didn’t let up when they got two outs and that’s when they were able to score pretty much all five of their runs.”

Buchholz displayed strong command Friday, mixing his fastball and curveball to keep the Astros off balance. Of his 110 pitches, 31 were curveballs.

“Any time you can steal a strike, it doesn’t matter what the count is, it puts them on their heels and puts you in a good spot to succeed,” Buchholz said. “As far as the curveball goes, it’s a good pitch whenever I can use it for a strike.”

“The last two times out, I’ve been able to throw a curveball behind or ahead in the count for strike one or 2-0, flip a curveball for a free strike. That’s sort of how I pitched last year, I just hadn’t been able to do it a lot this year. All the pitches fall into place whenever I get comfortable.”

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